10 Thanksgiving Disaster Stories

Find out who won WomansDay.com's Ultimate Thanksgiving Mishap Contest

Boasting cooking schedules to adhere to, family to impress and one day to do it all, Thanksgiving is a holiday that famously breeds disaster. We asked WomansDay.com readers to send us their holiday-gone-wrong recap—and boy did they ever. Some exemplified the classic mishaps (think dog eats turkey, broken heating element, etc.), but other mess-ups and misfortunes left us in disbelief. Here, check out the winning mishap, and the nine runners-up below (in no particular order)—if nothing else than to avoid making the same mistakes next year. Happy Thanksgiving!

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1. Gobbled Up By the Sea (winner)
It was 1991; we had just moved to Texas. To celebrate Thanksgiving, my husband had the great idea to rent a beach house on Galveston [Island Beach] and invite our family from Michigan. We had 12 people coming! We get to the beach house, put the turkey in the Nesco roaster and let it do its thing. Much later in the evening than planned we set tables out on the sand; everything was decorated beautifully! The turkey was gorgeous—cooked to perfection. All the trimmings were laid out on a side table; the only thing we were waiting on was the jelled cranberry salad. At dusk we started calling the kids in to clean up for dinner, while the men folk watched the tables—but I guess they forgot. The tides rolled in and in one great swoosh washed our table out into the Gulf! Shocked, the guys tried saving the side table but before they could group together another great wave rolled in. We watched our turkey rise to the surface then ride the wave farther out to be taken by the sea...probably devoured by jaws and his kin! That thanksgiving we had hot dogs and cranberry salad with toasted marshmallows on the side... –Lorri Nichols, Langdon, North Dakota

2. Grill Gone Wild
It was Thanksgiving, 1997. I was stationed with the USAF in England, and the Turkey was roasting on the grill. All is well with the world, until…disaster struck. I opened the lid to check on the turkey's progress and the trusty old grill simply fell apart mid-cook. It toppled to the ground, disgorging the turkey, which rolled a few feet across the grass. No matter. We just picked up the bird, brushed off the rust bits and finished cooking it in the microwave. The turkey was a bit crunchy that year, but it was a Thanksgiving everyone will remember for sure. –Mark Smith, Boise, Idaho

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3. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Brother 1 sends Brother 2 an invite to be forwarded to all siblings.
Brother 2 sends invite to Sister to show up for Thanksgiving.
Sister calls Brother 3 to show up for Thanksgiving.
Brother 3 shows up at Sister's.
Sister and Brother 2 show up at Brother 1's.
Brother 3 (me) has an extra three hour drive and microwaved turkey.–Dan Coburn, Westervilla, Ohio

4. Demolition Turkey
Several years ago while my sister and I still lived at home, my father had spent several hours preparing the turkey that we were to take to my grandma's house for our Thanksgiving dinner. Dressed and ready to go, my father started backing the car out of the driveway when we heard a horrible noise coming from underneath the car. Turns out, he had set the turkey down behind the car while we were loading everything else and forgot to put it in. The car dragged it a few feet down the driveway. It was demolished and we weren't able to salvage it. My father was upset that he had done something so stupid. As I began crying, the dogs took off with what was left of our turkey. –Christina McWhorter, Prairie Grove, Arkansas

5. Trip-tophan
I had everything ready to put on the table, and was set to make a grand entrance holding this platter of golden brown turkey. Then: I tripped over the dog and the turkey slid off of the platter and went under the table. The dog grabbed that bird and held on for dear life. My husband was actually on the floor trying to dislodge it from the dog's mouth. My sister cut up what was left of that turkey but for some reason, no one touched it. –Carol Cawvey, Romeoville, Illinois

6. Safety Pin Impressions
I cooked and baked for days in anticipation of the holiday. When Thanksgiving arrived, I unwrapped the boneless turkey breast held together with string netting, which I busily cut away and discarded—unaware that the netting was meant to hold the breast together while roasting. Once undone, the breast puddled in a sad heap. I frantically searched in vain for kitchen twine or string to tie it back together; all the stores were closed and I was running late. So I finally took the only fasteners I could find—safety pins—and pinned the breast together. I roasted it as planned and it couldn't have looked more beautiful. I was so pleased with myself for figuring out a solution, smug in the knowledge that my secret was safe—until I removed the safety pins. My beautiful turkey breast was covered with perfect impressions of safety pins—they looked like safety pin fossils. Twenty five years later my "safety pin turkey" is still infamous… –Lisa Speer, Palm Beach, Florida

7. A Blue Bird On My Shoulders
Thanksgiving Dinner was ready! We brought the turkey out of the oven, opened the roaster, and YIKES: The turkey was BLUE! Consternation and grief—what ever happened? We could not tolerate actually eating a blue turkey, so two guests from our group ran to the quick shop and bought the only thing available—a small pre-packaged miniature turkey breast (for eight of us!). Only days later did we realize that my daughter had used the turkey roaster to dye her son's Halloween costume. –Sharon Hallagin, Colby, Kansas

8. The Costing of Defrosting
My brother's sister-in-law was preparing Thanksgiving dinner and left the near 16-pound turkey defrosting on the counter top. Her family, who'd always been fond of dogs, had a small wiener dog named Daisy. Unfortunately, Daisy went into the kitchen at the wrong time—just as the defrosting turkey slid off the counter top and fell onto Daisy, which resulted in the demise of Daisy. It was a sad Thanksgiving for the relatives. –Eleanor Chengery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

9. Gravel, Gravel, Goo
My mother had very thoughtfully prepared and stuffed a raw turkey for Thanksgiving Day dinner, which I was hosting the next day. She put it in a roasting pan in the back of my van, where I stored it in the cold while I worked that night. As I was rounding the corner on my way to my brother's house after work, I heard a commotion; the back doors on my old van had a habit of flying open at any given moment, and I thought the rustling nothing more than a getaway coffee can. When I got to my brothers, who was going with me to see a local band, I got in his car and we drove to the lounge. That the rustling was the turkey didn't dawn on me until mid-show, when I said to my brother, "Rick, we've got to go...NOW." Sure enough, there the turkey was laying in the middle of the sidewalk. Unable to afford another—if we could even find one the night before Thanksgiving—we picked it up, took it home, washed it off and baked it up the next day. All throughout dinner, we would glance at each other knowingly and say "Hm, I don't even taste any gravel...do you?" A Thanksgiving to remember! –Cherie Berry, Canandaigua, New York

10. Extracting the Vanilla
Many, many years ago my Mom was preparing her first Thanksgiving dinner and wanted everything to be perfect—and it was: The linen, pressed; the turkey, a beautiful golden brown; the mashed potatoes, fluffy; the gravy without lumps; the cranberry sauce, neatly sliced; the veggies, steaming. We couldn't wait to dig in. After prayer, we all loaded our plates with turkey and mashed potatoes, buttered our rolls and poured gravy over everything—everyone was ready for that first mouthful… Hm: What ever was that taste in our mouth? Mom had poured the homemade gravy in a brown glass bottle, which when filled was exactly the same size and color as the Vanilla Flavoring. Yep, our entire meal was covered in vanilla-flavored gravy. After much scraping off of the gravy and lots of laughter we managed to eat our dinner. Thanks for the memories, Mom. Love, your daughter. –Misty Crawford, Ocala, Florida